If you haven’t already sampled one, I suggest you turn back to my chapter on whiskey and give the Paper Plane a try. That drink is equal parts bourbon, bittersweet Aperol, Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice, and Amaro Nonino. Here, we go with a Mexican- influenced version, subbing tequila for bourbon. It has no grapefruit, but you would swear that was half the ingredients. Avion de Papel is a super refreshing and worthy variant of a modern classic.
Here’s a sophisticated take on a tequila drink, with a nice dryness balanced by the dark sweetness of cherries. Try different tequilas – I’ve enjoyed blanco here but aged reposado works as well.
This Last Word variant created in the 2010s, it substitutes tequila for gin, pink Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit Juice for lime, and yellow Chartreuse for green Chartreuse, marrying herbal sweetness with bright citrus. This is not the Third Ward drink created in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward – an old-fashioned varient using vanilla bean simple syrup for sweetener.
Fresh Tart Grapefruit and tequila go together like peanut butter and chocolate, in my honest opinion, and the Greyhound is a simple prep that’s perfect for a summer afternoon. I discovered these at a neighborhood joint, Ziba’s, a few years ago. I had to start making them at home during the pandemic before restaurants began reopening.
